A militant separatist group swapped its two hostages for a jailed member early Monday, more than 12 hours after invading a neighbor's home and triggering a standoff with police.
The standoff remained unchanged since the married couple were released, state Trooper Richard Treece said Monday morning. He declined to say whether police and members of the Republic of Texas were talking to each other.Four or five troopers were posted at a roadblock several miles away from the entrance to the remote subdivision in the rugged David Mountains of west Texas, telling some drivers to go back.
Inside, the self-styled Republic of Texas "ambassador" said the group wouldn't give up and demanded a referendum to allow Texans to vote on being an independent nation.
"They released one of our people, our captain," Richard McLaren told the San Antonio Express-News by cell phone from his trailer "embassy" at the Davis Mountain Resort.
"He's back at the embassy. All our boys are back. We're digging in."
The Republic released hostages Joe Rowe and his wife, Margaret Ann Rowe, in a swap for Robert Jonathan Scheidt, arrested early Sunday on a weapons violation, Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Laureen Chernow said.
At least three dozen police who surrounded the subdivision remained in position and planned to resume negotiations with the group later Monday, Chernow said.
Reporters were kept at a rest stop several miles from the entrance to the site, 220 miles south of El Paso, the nearest major city.
Joe Rowe was in stable condition in an Alpine hospital after a minor gunshot wound to the shoulder.
The standoff began about noon Sunday. McLaren said hours later that the Rowes would be released in exchange for two Republic members: Scheidt, a 43-year-old identified as "captain of the embassy guard," and Jo Ann Canady Turner, arrested in Austin last week on two contempt charges. Ms. Turner remained in custody.
McLaren demanded another concession.
"We want them to agree to a referendum to allow Texans to vote on the independence issue," he told San Antonio radio station WOAI.
McLaren apparently was not part of the assault on the Rowes and remained about 15 miles away at a ramshackle trailer surrounded by trees. Richard Keys, the "militia lieutenant commander," said he was in charge at the Rowe house.
The group refused to specify its numbers. The DPS declined to speculate.
Although the hostages were released, other residents remained in about 90 homes scattered over thousands of acres of rugged high-desert terrain.
Neighbors were complaining for months about McLaren, a wild-haired, lanky 43-year-old man who filed property liens against them and threatened them with machine guns. He avoided an arrest warrant since last December for filing bogus liens.
"We've been telling people this was going to happen," said neighbor Michelle Behrendt.